Fluorescence quenching mediated detection of hydrogen peroxide using tungsten incorporated graphitic carbon nitride nanoflakes

Abstract

A reliable, non-enzymatic detection for H₂O₂ with high sensitivity and accuracy is of profound importance and getting considerable interest due to its usefulness in biological systems. Therefore, this work was aimed to develop a sensitive method for the detection of H₂O₂ using rhodamine B as a fluorescence system and tungsten doped graphitic carbon nitride (W/GCN) as catalysts. Fluorescence quenching and colorimetric properties of the chromogenic-dye probe were used as a detection strategy of H₂O₂. The enhanced catalytic property of nanoflakes of W/GCN was attributed to the unique structural characteristics, influenced by the dopant, that not only tuned its bandgap but also enhanced separation of electron–hole pairs as compared to planar and larger sized nanosheets of pristine GCN. This low-cost and rapid assay offered a very low limit of detection of 8 nM for the fluorescence quenching method and 20 nM for the colorimetric method. The linear range for fluorescence quenching and colorimetric H₂O₂ assays were from 10–500 nM and 35–400 nM, respectively. Therefore, this novel method of using W/GCN nanoflakes in fluorescence quenching and colorimetric based detections of H₂O₂ is expected to catch more interest on the topic of using non-enzymatic platforms for sensitive and selective detection of different analysts.